[1] Khaled Cheikho, Moustafa Cheikho, Mohamed Ali Elomar, Abdul Rakib Hasan, and Mohammed Omar Jamal were arrested in various neighbourhoods of Sydney and were tried in the New South Wales Supreme Court over a terror-related plot they planned between July 2004 and November 2005.
[8][9] Prosecutor Richard Maidment claimed that the five men wanted "violent jihad which involved the application of extreme force and violence, including the killing of those who did not share the fundamentalist... extremist, beliefs".
[10] A mistrial was almost declared when the defence asked for the jury to be dismissed; it was discovered that a young woman, who was a relative of one of the accused, had been coming to court and reportedly writing down descriptions of the jurors.
The trial was one of Australia's longest and involved approximately 300 witnesses and 3,000 exhibits, including 18 hours of telephone intercepts and 30 days of surveillance tapes, which has overtaken the record previously held by the liquidation of Bell Group.
[8][9][10][11] Outside the court, supporters of the five men shouted in protest and anger after they watched the ruling on an outdoor screen.